Blog Archives

Review: Home School In The Woods

4/30/2013

Mom, PLEASE, I want to make more coins.
Mom.. please, can we make more???

This was the refrain I heard when using the Great Empires Activity Study by Home School in the Woods. We have been doing this study as part of Schoolhouse Review Crew. We worked on the Vikings and China.

photo HSitW-NewLOGO-website_zps0d8de564.gif

Facts

Vendor: Home School in the Woods.
Product: The Great Empires.
Pricing: Download $18.95, CD $19.95
Age Range: Elementary

The Great Empires Study includes studying such places as Ancient Civilizations such as Egypt, Greece and Rome as well as China. It takes a look at the various empires of the Arab-Muslim world, the Mongolians, Vikings, Spanish, French, English, German, Japanese and Russian. They finish by looking that the United States of America.

photo PHOTO-GreatEmpires-COMBINED-web-sm_zpsb1b34063.jpg

There was no way we would be able to get through all these empires in our short review period so we chose to focus on those that had an impact upon Canada in some way. The Vikings discovered Canada, and the Chinese folks worked building the railroad. This gave us the hook in that intrigued my lad.

Text, videos, activity, menus. This sums up the way the study was set up. A timeline is also provided so you can fill in the figures as you study them. The download link had PDF files which included texts, projects and printable activity pages. The projects lists included recipes, games, maps, hands-on projects, crafts and list of reference literature for further in-depth studies.

Viking coins

We made Viking coins and Viking flat bread. Both were a huge hit.
Learning how the Vikings influenced the world around them the lad found absolutely fascinating. Since the people were afraid of the Vikings they learned better ways to defend themselves. The lad was so intrigued by that idea that he wove it into his play for several days after that. The Vikings inspired a boat trip on a rainy day.

We also looked at China.. and I have to admit, this study disappointed me in that it seemed to take a vary cursory look at China, only briefly mentioned two of the major time periods. I understand this is due to needed brevity but I felt teased, I know there are more time periods, but NOTHING was mentioned about most of them.

Map work and the Great Wall of China. I didn't know before that the Great Wall of China was built in sections. I also hadn't understood that the Mongol attack was a big part of why the Wall was built. The lad learned this and of course had totally fly with it. :)

Defend the wall! Protect the pigs!!! The birds are coming!!! Protect the pigs!!!!

If you exchange the pigs for the Chinese people and the birds for the Mongols.. it all makes perfectly logical sense. :) He understood it quite well. :) He had so much fun acting out the sequence of events.

We also made a surprising discovery. Our recipes for this part of the study called for Egg Drop Soup and Spring Rolls. My very fussy, extremely cautious of new foods, lad LIKES Egg Drop Soup!!!! I learned that hey... Spring rolls are fairly good (especially with plum sauce), but the lad very much disagreed with me. He gobbled up the egg drop soup and all was right in his world. :)

My overall opinion

I found it to be an okay introductory study. I wanted more.    This is me.   I find it frustrating when I know there is more information available but when I'm not given enough information to research it myself I'm just annoyed. I felt like that particularly with the China Study.

My son found that it was enough information. I parsed out the information to him. I watched videos with him in between reading the textual facts. Some of the facts were simply too dry to just read to him in one sitting.   We used videos to make the learning become more real.

I will continue to use this study but I can see myself supplementing it. Using things like the Great Wall 3-D puzzle to show difficult it was to make the wall, and how they had to defend it.   I would anticipate doing more of that sort of thing. BUT that's me and how I do things. This study would stand alone quite nicely as it does teach the basic facts to elementary age children. I just want more....

And you may also wish to have more... more opinions that is of what others thought of this study, and the other review items from Home School in the Woods. If so you can either click this link or click the image below to find more crew reviews to be read.   Everyone has their own experiences to share so go, have fun and read more of them. :)

Disclaimer

Review and Giveaway: Hey God, I've got some guy named Jonah in my Stomach and I think I'm going to Throw Up.

4/26/2013

Today I am doing a review for FlyBy Promotions.
They sent me a book called " Hey God, I've God Some Guy Named Jonah in my Stomach and I think I'm Going to Throw up!"
This is a children's book.

You can find the book at this website.
Troy Schmidt, the author, can be found on facebook or twitter (@troyeschmidt). Troy Schmidt has writing and video production credits ranging from assignments with Disney (The Mickey Mouse Club) and Nickelodeon to Max Lucado's Hermie franchise. He is currently the lead writer for The American Bible Challenge hosted by Jeff Foxworthy on the Game Show Network. Troy and his wife have three sons.
The Publisher is BH Publishing and they can be found on facebook as well.

My Review

From the website:

Hey God, I've Got Some Guy Named Jonah in My Stomach and I Think I'm Gonna Throw Up! imagines how that great sea creature from the incident might tell his side of the story, helping kids ages 4 to 8 discover a creative way of learning about that guy who was supposed to go to Ninevah.

As soon as this book arrived my lad looked at it and was very interested in it so I sat down to read it to him. My husband was sitting with us. :)

My husband smiled, my boy laughed and asked tons of questions.

A winner. :)

I like books that make my boy ask questions.
I like books that make learning enjoyable.
I like books that make you remember them....and this book my lad remembers as after only one reading he was already anticipating what was going to be read next. :)

It does take a slightly irreverent not totally accurate approach to the story of Jonah, which is why I only gave it a four star. BUT it's fun, it makes you remember the story of Jonah, and it shows that God works things out in ways that don't always make sense, and that God always has a plan.     Having stories that aren't totally accurate to read helps to develop in a child discernment and are very useful for the purposes of teaching (should one choose to do so).

Final thoughts on this book....get it to read with your children.   It is a fun read that helps you remember the overall story of Jonah quite well. Suitable for all different homes.   Learn about the whale really...tis a good thing. :)

This is just the first in a series. Other books available include Hey God, Can You Stop The Rain So I Can Get Off Noah's Smelly Ark? and Hey God, I'm Having an Awful Vacation in Egypt Thanks to Moses!   My son would very much like me to get these books as well. :)

A nice little add on is the Parent Connection

The "Parent Connection" feature will help moms and dads take the story further with scripture references and tips on how to talk with their children about what really happened. There's even a free online app to make this bright retelling even more animated and interactive.

The Giveway

I get to give a copy of this book away. :) Would you like to win one for your very own children or those that you know? Please, enter. :)

Entry -Form

Disclosure

I received this book from FlyBy Promotions in order to review it. The opinions expressed of myself and my family. I was not required to give a good review, merely to give an honest review. The hope was that I would post this review on my blog. I am disclosing this information as per FTC policy.

Insects

4/25/2013

Today the lad and I predominately worked on the Insects Lapbook from Hands of a Child. Our main focus was on vocab and the orders of insects. I used the vocab words to show my son how if you know parts of the word you can often figure out the whole word EVEN IF it's a great big long word. :) For instance Carnivore...starts with a word the lad knows well. And it ends with a bossy R..... so Car ?? or... so play around with it and soon he said CARNIVORE! Precisely lad. :) He was happy...he figured it out. Just ways to build his confidence.

He also worked on his Adventus. The goal was to have him only do a practice session but ...well...the lad fights against that. He wants to keep doing something new. So...I looked up some music books I had and said OKAY...I have something that you can practice WHILE you do the "new" using Children's Music Journey 2 by Adventus.

ACK MOM!!! This is too hard, I don't like it.
Well...it gives you something to work on then doesn't it?
and look....You CAN do this too. :)

So I showed him that he could. Well...he got one page down, but then he let his "ackiness" get in the way and didn't really try for the second. But... He'll practice it daily until he has it. Good to challenge a lad a bit.

We called it a day after that since he's fighting a cold and was getting too... hmm.. "techy" for anything good to come of it.

The Lord's Prayer and More

4/23/2013

Today we started a new review from Christianity Cove. It's a lesson the Lord's Prayer. To that end we listened to this rendition of the Lord's Prayer.

We also talked about how a balloon can show how our prayers go up to God and attempted to make a scroll. We obviously fail at following directions as this didn't go over too well. But the whole prayer is a balloon and incense is like a sweet smell to God that the lad could understand. :)

The lad worked on his Adventus Music program this morning. He's getting to harder lessons now so needs to practice more and is fighting that. It's a change in routine and such things are often difficult to master. :)

I got him out on his bike because I want him biking decently well before we go on vacation this year as he's outgrown the trail-along bike.

Then we worked on Joyce Herzog Scaredy Cat reading system. He worked on mirror words, finding commonality in words and then figuring out how to say them and then to come up with new words with the same sounds in them. Then he took a speed drill. he completed all the words in 3.20.1. We'll do it again in a couple of days and see how he does with pronunciation of that list of words. He's starting to get it though he's easily "ACK!!! I can't do this mom". And I just need to continue to remind him that he can do it, he just needs to slow down and think.

He managed to complete a whole sheet of math facts this morning in 2 minutes. All correct and complete. earned one free dig in his treasure box for doing so. "Mom.. I worked HARD at that today". :) WOOT WOOT! We have improvement. Really like being able to use the sheets from Softschools.com.

Preparing them for Highschool and College

4/22/2013

I know that my mother struggles with the fact that I homeschool my son is a manner that is very different than my sister-in-law does.    I know that full well.

DO NOTE: this is not a negative on my mom. I love her dearly... the feeling is mutual. I just wonder about easing the heart of someone I care for deeply.

I know that my mom worries that my son won't be prepared for life due to how I homeschool.   I"m not organized, I'm fairly eclectic and I just do things differently. It's a manner that suits my particular style of living.

This came up yesterday in a conversation about how the lad was learning about China as that's part of learning about Canada's history, as I wanted to share how it thought it interesting that the lad likes Egg Drop Soup.   Somehow from there we got into "taking the summer" off and how I don't really do that as I see learning as part of lifelong living and it's just a matter of fitting the learning into life and so forth.... and then the question of "but how is he going to be prepared for highschool and college?" He has to KNOW things you know.

I attempted to reassure her that even though I school differently, it doesn't mean that the lad isn't learning what he needs to learn...but the skepticism and concern is still there.

So then it makes me wonder..... am I doing something wrong?

Should I force myself to do things differently?

Should I need to buy a curriculum and follow it by the book (though I have to admit to shuddering at the thought).

Are there things I can do to ease the heart of my mother?   I suppose that's the crux of it. How can I as a Christian homeschool parent ease the heart of my mother? She supports homeschooling, she just is concerned (without being negative to who I am) about the future needs of my lad.

At this point in time I don't know.

I just wonder what I can do to help her heart not fret.

Learning coming out in Play

4/22/2013

On Saturday while cleaning the living room I put on a show about the Roman coliseum. The lad found it quite interesting and asked a great deal of questions about it.

Sunday afternoon I come home from visiting my parents, go up to check on the lad and find him building his own arena.

It seems the soldiers have captured my play critters and are going to make them fight

Two sets of fighters in the ring at the time.
Even friends were made to fight friends (just like in the movie).

the fighting was intense, the guy in black is the one hosting the show, sometimes he did what the crowd wanted, but mostly he spared the lives of the fighters, he wanted them to live to fight another day.

At one point they even brought out a tiger who didn't want to fight, so the animal trainer was threatened with death...but he escaped with the help of one of the fighters. YEAH!!!!!!

Cooking for China Study

4/18/2013

We made two dishes tonight from the Great Empires study done by Home School in the Woods. The above was egg drop soup. I don't know that I'll ever make it again, even though wonder upon wonders the lad LOVED IT. This boy DOES NOT do soup. But he liked this soup. I needed to add some maggi to make it palatable for me...and just a touch for him. But he liked it. But I found it quite fussy to make.

The second I liked. Spring rolls. I didn't much like them plain, and I needed to learn just how long to cook them. Plum sauce made a good addition for me, hubby used a sweet chili sauce, and the lad disliked them INTENSELY. I made him eat one and then let him happily eat the egg drop soup.

Pictorial of putting the spring rolls together

China, learning of it is part of our History as well

4/18/2013

Today Homeschool in the Woods had us studying Ancient China.

We watched this series, parts 1-5

We also watched

We read from the text provided and drew a couple of the maps in. Not all eight as that was too "AH!!" to the lad to do all of them, but doing two was quite manageable. :)

Then we set off to build our own great wall of China. Did you know that the wall was built primarily to keep out the mongul hoards and then later used to keep out other enemies?

we used this kit which I picked up cheap at the London New and Used Curriculum sale.

It was a bit of a struggle to put together and I understand why the previous owners gave up on it. We simply did the best we could and it turned out well enough for a lad to play with it for a good spell. Some pics below spell out the tale for you. :) DEFEND the PIG FORTRESS! Protect the pigs! Stupid BIRDS leave us alone WE HAVE A WALL!!!!!!

How does this connect to Canada?
It's important to know the history of the people who have helped create this land. The Chinese have been part of Canada ever since the railways have been put in. We haven't always treated them well, but they are part of our history. Now we learn some of their history as well.

Scaredy Cat and Outdoor Learning

4/17/2013

Our day started out with working in the gardens, planning out our course for the day and then having breakfast. Reading the paper was cause for good discussion over why people do bad things (the boston marathon bombing). The lad finds (as do I) such badness disturbing and it's good to talk about why people do bad things (they want their own thing more than they want God).

Language Arts

Today we started a new review for Joyce Herzog, called the Scaredy Cat reading system. I have to admit, I find this system a bit ' intimidating". The lessons are long, it has a different approach than what I am used to, but I think we'll make it work. I firmly suspect each lesson will take us a good week to go through. When the lad saw me leafing through lesson one he got scared that I was going to make him do it all in one shot so I needed to reassure him.

In the above picture he's working on alphabetizing some words and then I had him read them out loud. He was a bit confounded that not every letter in the alphabet was to be found, so needed to be reminded to just skip those letters. He LOVED playing the word game though. This surprised as I was positive in my head (I wasn't foolish enough to show that hesitation) that he'd not be at all interested in doing them. But his competitive nature kicked in and he loved it. Loved trying to figure out how to say a word. We each played an angry bird as our character and had the angry birds learn how to say the words presented. :) Just fun that.

History

We did some more work on Home School in the Woods. We spray painted our coins today. The lad would like to make more coins so I'll see if I can squeeze that into our day tomorrow. :)

one of the lad's coins

one of my coins.

Math

We did a math lesson through tutorsoft. Still working on multiplication, we are mostly just doing ground work and not doing actual multiplication at this point. He continues to memorize his basic addition facts yet. The lad still quirks his eyes and scrunches his face up as he listens so I just need to give him more time to absorb the facts a bit yet. Soon we'll start memorizing the multiplication tables as well.

Nature Study

The lad has continued his learning into the ways and patterns of toads. This little fellow was rediscovered today and much to-do made over him. A house was built.

A prison area was developed that the lad was certain that toad couldn't get out of, but toad proved to be a very good climber. :)

We decided based on patterning on toad that he is probably a bigger version of the toads we found at the Pinery last year and released into our backyard. He would have course grown larger but we know he isn't one-eye or "big toad" that kept the lad well amused last summer.

Fishing was the name of the game in the afternoon. We met an older fellow who let the lad take a good look at the black crappie that he caught, and told us stories about snapping turtles and how they took his catch off the holding line. Told the lad to leave snapping turtles well enough alone (the lad was well enough impressed) and if he really wanted to catch a fish, to come back the last week of April and catch a trout or two. That way he wouldn't need to pay to be part of the derby on the weekend. :)

Using life in teaching

4/17/2013

Right now, one of my big projects is to ready the raised gardens for spring planting. The lad is helping me. As we work, we learn. I LOVE this type of homeschooling though it requires advance reading for me so that I have ready answers at my finger tips.

Discovering Nature

Right in our own backyard. The lad was absolutely delighted. MOM! LOOK!!!! Our first toad of spring! I Dug him up!!! LOOK MOM!!!

and so we have our first toad of spring. He was dug up accidentally, we made sure he was okay by letting him hop around for a while, and then the lad covered him up with dirt again to help keep his body temp stabilized for the night.

The lad has also been discovering worms. Last night while I was working he was right in there with me, and he found some just born worms. They are very light at birth and he was just in wonder. He even found some of the eggs/cocoons that they hatch from. Good eyes on the lad as I never would have seen them. Seeing the wonder on his face and hearing the delight in his voice...it just makes the hard work of spring gardening well worth it. He's learned a lot about camoflage ....how God naturally makes animals darker on the top and lighter underneath as it helps them to hide (even worms have this). How God helps to protect baby things before they are born (worms in cocoons). He's discovered insect cocoon and has learned to properly bury them again so we can see what might come out of them.

Links to our increased understanding

Worm Facts from Univ. of Illnois.

Baby worms are not born.
They hatch from cocoons smaller than a grain of rice.

Types of worms in Ontario

This page was helpful in being able to ask the lad leading questions.
Earthworm biology.

1. Earthworms respire ("breathe") by absorbing oxygen through their body surface into the body and    sending carbon dioxide out. The oxygen dissolves in the mucous on the body surface and then       passes into the highly branched capillary blood vessels in the body wall where it is picked up by the    respiratory pigment and transported to the internal organs.

2. Earthworms may survive for considerable lengths of time in water if the dissolved oxygen level    is high enough.

3. Earthworms cannot maintain a steady body temperature like humans or dogs or cattle.This means their respiration rate rises with increasing temperature. Increasing respiration rates mean increased    metabolic rates which means increased energy requirements which means increased feeding rates    by worms or food must be "stolen" from reserves in the worms' own body tissues. The reverse is    true for decreasing temperatures.

4. Earthworms derive their nutrition from organic matter in a wide variety of forms. So far plant matter (various forms, fresh‑decayed), protozoans, rotifers, nematodes, bacteria, fungi and decomposing remains of other animals are known to be worm food.

All about worms
This site has information about all different types of worms and what their distribution is. I do wish it had some better pictures though. it's an interesting site though and uses proper earthworm terminology.

From this Canadian Geographic Article we learned the following:

Number of worm species identified in Canada: 25

Number of segments in a full grown dew-worm: approximately 150, all of them capable of sensing light and touch

Average length of a dew-worm: about 25 centimetres, roughly the height of this page

Life expectancy: approximately seven to nine years

Number of worms that can fit in a regulation worm-picking coffee can: 400 to 600

Number of offspring a dew-worm produces each year: 10 to 12

I also learned that earthworms are very dependent on having enough moisture in the ground and decent temperatures. They are most prevalent in Canada naturally in Vancouver and Southern Ontario. They are found in the cultivated areas on the prairies (but generally not in the drier grasslands) and they were introduced into the the eastern provinces. (this from reading general site captions). Never knew earthworms could be so interesting.

All this from doing some gardening with a seven year old boy. :)

The question I get over and over again is MOM, why are there so many worms here? Why do they like this area?

We find that most of the earthworms are congregating where either there is lots of hay (the pale dew worm types) or where there is lots of poop/hay mixed (the red wiggler types). I just find it interesting how they distribute themselves and I like breaking up the rabbit compost to spread them out a bit. Worms are good for the soil you know. :) The lad, he just carefully collects them and puts them in a big bucket with soil.

I'll close off with a picture of his ever present helpers. The pigs. They LOVE exploring in the backyard with the lad and just add a fun element to his adventures. :) They do get right into it don't they? :)

<<Previous

Review: Home School In The Woods

Facts

My overall opinion

Disclaimer

Review and Giveaway: Hey God, I've got some guy named Jonah in my Stomach and I think I'm going to Throw Up.

My Review

The Giveway

Disclosure

Insects

The Lord's Prayer and More

Preparing them for Highschool and College

Learning coming out in Play

Cooking for China Study

Pictorial of putting the spring rolls together

China, learning of it is part of our History as well

Scaredy Cat and Outdoor Learning

Language Arts

History

Math

Nature Study

Using life in teaching

Discovering Nature

Links to our increased understanding

Who Am I?

Archives

Categories

2013 TOS Reviews

Other Reviews

Facts

My overall opinion

Disclaimer

My Review

The Giveway

Disclosure

Pictorial of putting the spring rolls together

Language Arts

History

Math

Nature Study

Discovering Nature

Links to our increased understanding

Who Am I?

Subscribe to our mailing list

Archives

Categories

2013 TOS Reviews

Other Reviews